1169

remains owing, and they feel that all their efforts must atpresent be directed to increasing the income, so as to makeit meet the actual and necessary expenditure, and towardsthis end they most earnestly beg for the help of those inter-ested in this hospital, and of all who feel the strong claimswhich the sick and suffering have on those whose meansenable them to do even a little to alleviate their distress."

PADDINGTON GREEN CHILDRFN’s HOSPITAL.—This insti-tution comprises, in addition to the in-patient department, avery important out-patient department, in which it will beseen, from our tabulated statement, that a very large amountof relief was administered in the course of last year. Thecommittee has just carried out extensive building operationsfor the improvement of the accommodation afforded in thisdepartment, and while reporting a highly favourable conditionof their finances generally, they base an appeal for specialcontributions to defray the exceptional cost attendant uponthis extension.

VICTORIA HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN.—To this hospitalthere is attached a seaside convalescent home, and the amountof work done in the course of twelve months at the two insti-tutions is enormous if regard be had to its quantity alone.But to be appreciated it must be considered in the light alsoof the nature of the results achieved, and these were veryfitly described by the treasurer of the hospital, who, speakingto a gathering of its supporters, said :-" It is a most blessedand beneficent charity, specially devised to help the helpless,to remove from the shoulders of the innocent the burden ofsuffering that has been cast upon them through no fault oftheir own-sufferings which bring home to us one of themost terrible denunciations ever uttered against misconduct- ’ The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the children.’Now, I do not think I exaggerate when I say that certainlyone-half the cases treated within our walls are of this nature,and they, too, are the cases we have the most difficulty indealing with, and which are most difficult to cure. The onlyway in which they can be cured at all is by long and patienttreatment. We have some, indeed many, cases the result ofdiseases engendered by want of cleanliness and want of

proper and sufficient nourishment. These are very differentcases, and far more easy to treat. They yield rapidly to thegood treatment and tender care and nursing they get from us.It is marvellous, after a short sojourn in the hospital and asubsequent month at our convalescent home at Margate, tosee the change produced in such cases. Instead of the sad,feeble, little atoms that we have received, we are able to sendback to their homes bright, sturdy, healthy-looking lads andlasses, with roses in their cheeks and laughter in their eyes."

LYING-IN HOSPITALS.

BRITISH LYING-IN HOSPITAL.—The Board of Managementare able to report that, during the past year, their medicalofficers and midwives dealt with 750 patients, with only oneoeath. But, while able to speak so satisfactorily of the

efficiency attained in their work, they have to confess that thefinancial condition of their institution was such last year asto necessitate the realization of investments to clear it ofdebt.

CITY OF LONDON LYING-IN HOSPITAL.—The wives ofseamen, of soldiers, and of industrious mechanics have a paramount claim upon the benefits of this charity, subject towhich other lying-in women may be admitted to share them.GENERAL LYING-IN HOSPITAL.—The scope of this charity

will best be understood from the following summary of itswork:—Respectable married women, whose circumstancescompel them to ask the aid of this form of charity, are

received as in-patients during their confinements, and have theadvantage of skilful medical attendance and nursing. Ap-proved midwives are appointed in all parts of the metropolisfor the purpose of attending poor married women who areeonfined at their own homes. Such out-patients are providedwith skilful professional advice, when it is needed, and withmedicines. The benefits of the hospital have always beenspecially accorded to the wives of soldiers and sailors.

Arrangements can also be made with metropolitan providentdispensaries for granting the advantages of the hospital totheir members. In exceptional cases, single women who arefound by the committee of management, upon careful investi-gation, to have shown general good conduct and to be objectsof real commiseration, are not refused the benefits of thehospital for their first confinement. The subscription listshows that the charity is largely dependent for its supportupon other localities than that in which it is situated, and theannual statement for last year showed that the expenditureexceeded the income by an appreciable sum.QUEEN OHAItLOTTE’S LYING-IN HOSPITAL.-From the fol-

lowing definition of the objects of this charity, it will be seenthat they are somewhat more comprehensive in the terms ofadmission granted to unmarried women than those of somekindred institutions :—(1) The delivery of married women,both in the hospital and at their own homes; (2) the deliveryof deserving single women, in the hospital, with their firstchild only; (3) the training of medical pupils, midwives, andmonthly nurses. As to the attainment of these objects, thecommittee say, in their last report :-‘‘ The working of thehospital has continued, during the past year, to be satisfactory.The constant and increasing applications by poor women foradmission or attendance at their own homes, and than gratitudewhich the patients have uniformly expressed for the benefitsthey have received, furnish abundant proof of the high esti-mation in which the charity is held by those for whose benefitit was founded. That nothing may be wanting to preservethe high reputation the hospital enjoys, and that its efficiencymay be maintained, is the constant aim of the committee.The only serious difficulty with which they have to contend isthe inadequacy of the means at their disposal. That sobeneficent a work will be permitted to languish for want offunds the committee do not believe, and they appeal withearnestness and confidence to the public for extended supportto enable them to maintain the charity to its full extent andin the highest state of efficiency."

HOSPITALS FOR WOMEN.

CHELSEA HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN.—This hospital, as itsprospectus shows, was founded for the reception and treat-ment of respectable poor women and gentlewomen in reducedcircumstances, suffering from those many distressing diseasesto which the female sex is liable, irrespective of social posi-tion. A great proportion of women thus affiicted are thoseupon whom the numberless misfortunes of ill-health mostheavily fall-the poor gentlewoman, the governess, the wifeof the poorly-paid clerk, the artisan, and the very poor.Their homes are altogether unsuited for the performance ofa critical operation, and they cannot there have the nursingand care which a hospital affords. The system of medicalrelief which has been adopted at this hospital since itsfoundation is that of requiring the patient to contribute

something towards the cost of her maintenance if in a posi-tion to do so, while, to the really poor, gratuitous treatmentis freely given. The income of the hospital last year fellshort of its expenditure by nearly £300.

HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN, SOHO-SQUARE. -This hospitalprovides, in addition to its in- and out-patient departments,a medical school, by which it claims to do a great and ex-tending work for the benefit, not of its own patients only, butof women everywhere, by spreading a knowledge of thediseases and their treatment to which their sex renders themliable. It is a feature of this school that its students includequalified medical practitioners, of whom no fewer than thirty-eight entered for a three months’ course of study at theinstitution last year. Thus, the committee refer with satis-faction, both to the direct results which we tabulate uponanother page, and the indirect results which we chroniclehere, of their labours, but the precarious nature and varyingamount of the pecuniary support which they receive is a causeof serious anxiety.

GROSVENOR HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN.-Established in 1866 for the treatment, as in-patients, ofwomen suffering from diseases peculiar to their sex, and as

1170

out-patients of women and children afflicted with any formof non-contagious disorder.NEW HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN.—In this hospital it will be

seen from our tabulated statement that a large amount of medi-cal relief was administered during the past year, and from thereport of the committee it would appear that by far the mostserious difficulty which they encounter is that of providingadequate funds for the sustentation of their institution andits work.

ROYAL HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN AND WOMEN.—The com-mittee of this institution are in the happy position of beingable to report that their income for last year sufficed not’only to meet the expenditure but also to enable them to dosomething towards the liquidation of a subsisting debt of£800. They have still, however, some arrears to make good,and are so far from being satisfied with the present positionof their charity that they take occasion to announce that theordinary income of the hospital is about £2000 per annumless than the expenditure necessary to keep open all thewards, to provide for the efficiency of a large out-patientdepartment, and to keep the institution free of debt.

SAMARITAN FREE HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN.-To the magnitude of the work done at this institution ourtabulated statement bears record, as also to the financialdifficulties by which it is beset. We give upon the authorityof a pamphlet furnished to us from the institution thefollowing particulars of its history."At a time when the operation of ovariotomy was looked

upon as hopeless, and ovarian disease consequently as beyondthe reach of remedy, Mr. (now Sir Spencer) Wells was urgentfor the admission to the hospital of ovarian cases. He pleaded-what was felt before to be true enough—that their exclusionwas inconsistent with the title and hardly in good faith with thepublic. But the question was weighted with serious cou-

siderations, which touched the very existence of the place.Ovariotomy had ended fatally, with few exceptions, at allthe general hospitals. The professional mind was adverse toit; worse than all, the coroner declared he would hold aninquest over every fatal case. The hospital was doing fairlywell. Incurring an inquest would be tantamount to closingits doors there and then. Nevertheless, in 1858, Mr. Wellswas permitted to operate on three ovarian cases. The opera-tion succeeded in all of them. New methods took the placeof old ones; a multitude of observances hitherto overlookedwere now found to be essential. The proportionate mortalitycommenced at one in three, followed, as time went on, byone in four, one in five, one in seven, one in ten, one in fifteen,to one in twenty. Up to 1858, when the Samaritan took thedisease in hand, foreign hospital records scarcely mentionedthe operation. As a matter of course, all their poor ovariansufferers died. At home the majority of those submitted tothe operation also died. At the present day the operation isbeing resorted to everywhere, and an immense saving of lifeis annually effected by its means." Yet the institution wherethe important demonstration was first given, and the safemethod slowly perfected, is at present in the greatest difficultyfor want of funds, on the one hand unable to make its

ordinary income balance its ordinary expenditure, and on theother laid under the immediate necessity of incurring theexpense of removal upon the expiry of its lease.

OTHER HOSPITALS.

CANCER HOSPITAL.-This hospital has been in operationsince 1851. It began upon a very small scale, but has gra-dually increased, and has given relief since its foundation to27,131 persons suffering under this terrible scourge ofhumanity. It is difficult to imagine any attempt to removeor mitigate human suffering in which the impossibility ofdeception is more absolute, in which the suffering of theafflicted is more immediately aggravated by neglect or ig-norance, and in which the duty of sympathy with the suf-ferer is more undeniable. The hospital, which has undergonegreat extension and is freehold, is capable of receiving up-wards of 100 indoor-patients. No restriction is placed on

the admission of out-patients (the hospital being free), thenumber of which amount to about 1500 constantly undertreatment.

ST. SAVIOUR’S HOSPITAL FOR CANCER.-This hospital wasoriginally founded to test the efficacy in the treatment ofcancer of an escharotic known as " Michel Paste," but it wasproposed, at the same time, to use every known remedy.Accordingly, other remedies are still being tested, upon theprinciple of leaving nothing untried that may prove useful inthe treatment of the disease. The chief burden of the main.tenance of the hospital is borne privately, the contributionsof the public being comparatively small.LONDON FEVER HOSPITAL.-This being the only institu.

tion in the metropolis for the treatment of patients-notbeing paupers-suffering from infectious fevers, dischargesa most important function in facilitating the isolation andtreatment of this class of disease. The patients pay for theiradmission at the rate of 23 3s. each, but as the cost to theinstitution averages 211 8s. a patient, there is a large marginof outlay to be provided from charitable sources. The reosources of the institution were severely taxed by the epidemicof last year, and the committee base upon this fact an urgentappeal for additional funds to spare them the necessity, underwhich they will otherwise come, of trenching upon their smallcapital.

ST. MARK’S HOSPITAL FOR FISTULA.—The prevalence of theclass of diseases which are treated at this hospital has securedfor it a very considerable amount of charitable support. Butthe relief which it can afford falls far short of the demand madeupon it by the suffering poor, so much so that the committeestate that were the number of beds doubled they could easilybe filled. They, therefore, earnestly desire to realize such anaugmentation of their income as will enable them to enlargethe scale of their undertakings.

NATIONAL HOSPITAL FOR DISEASES OF THE HEART ANDPARALYSIS.—The only hospital specially devoted to thetreatment of heart disease, it deals with a class of disorderswhich in a marked degree demand prolonged and carefultreatment. The present position of the hospital is one ofsome financial embarrassment, the committee being indebtedin the sum of J6200 to their bankers, in a further considerablesum to tradesmen, and liable to incur a large outlay uponalterations, repairs, painting, and the renewing of worn-outfurniture. ’

LocK HOSPITALS (FEMALE AND MALE).-These two insti-tutions, though perfectly distinct in point of organisationand of funds, are subject to one management, and so far

subject to a comnion lot in the matter of their pecuniaryneeds that they may with advantage be treated together.The hospital and asylum for female patients exist for two pur-poses :—1. To relieve the bodily suffering and fearful miseryof degraded and fallen women, of whom it is estimated thatthere are in London no less than 50,000. 2. To reformpatients, when cured, by offering them a home in the refor-matory or asylum attached to the hospital, where, after havingbeen brought under the influence of kindness and sympathy,and careful supervision and training, they are fitted for serviceor restored to their friends. Since the repeal of the Con.tagious Diseases Acts the receipts from the War Office

(amounting in 1886 to £1127) have ceased. This hasnaturally crippled the income of the hospital, which is nowalmost entirely dependent on donations and subscriptions forsupport. The regular income arising from these sources

amounts to only £1160, whilst an estimated yearly expendi.t,ure of at least £4000 has to be met. In these circumstancesthe governors earnestly appeal for help, to enable them notonly to consolidate, but if possible to extend, the good workthey have in hand.

HOSPITAL FOR EPILEPSY AND PARALYSIS.—In this hospitalthe principle of requiring from patients some payment, ac.cording to their means, in return for the attention which theyreceive, has from the first been enforced, and latterly thecommittee has been compelled by the financial position of thecharity to give a preference to patients who could afford to